Hollywood Actor – James Marsden

There was a time when James Marsden seemed most at home on television, appearing on two of the more popular dramas of the late 1990s, Party of Five and Second Noah. His good looks and appealing manner made him a popular television star, especially with the young female crowd the shows were targeted towards. With the advent of the new millenium however, James seems to finally be coming into his own, and seems set to take Hollywood – and your cinema – by storm.

Marsden was born September 18th, 1973 in Stillwater, Oklahoma but he has since moved out to Los Angeles to be closer to the action. Before leaving, he attended Oklahoma State University, where he was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and sang in the college choir.

However, school didn’t hold his interest and he dropped out in 1993 to pursue his acting career. While he didn’t stay on either Party of Five or Second Noah for long (Jeremy London took over the role of Griffin on Party of Five after the first season, and Second Noah was canceled pretty early), things didn’t really slow down too much for Jimmy.

In fact, before long he was fielding movie offers and starring in Disturbing Behavior, a horror film which also starred Katie Holmes.

The film captured some of the audience I Know What You Did Last Summer had brought in the summer before, but it was widely seen as a disappointment and a sign that the teen horror/thriller genre was on the way out. The less than stellar reception of Disturbing Behavior put a slight damper on James’ career, but he rebounded, popping up in theatres again almost two years later in Gossip. Once again the movie boasted a young and attractive cast, and once again it was met with a lukewarm response. This time though, James left an impression despite the lack of warmth for the film as a whole.

Truly though, it was his casting as Scott Summers/Cyclops in the much anticipated X-Men movie that truly put James on the map. The role had been bandied about for quite some time before he finally won the role – and next to Wolverine it was one of the most sought after. The film opened to amazing box office, setting some records and making the list of the most profitable opening weekends of all time (behind The Lost World and The Phantom Menace). Suddenly James has become one of Hollywood’s fastest rising stars and a leading man of the future.